It was the late 1970s when the term “downwinders,” gained prominence. Initially, it referred to people who lived not far from nuclear test sites in Nevada. But in time, it included countless more people who lived in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
Beginning in the mid 1950s and continuing to the early 1960s, families and their heir may have been exposed to radioactive contamination. In the past few decades, downwinders – and particularly those who were diagnosed with cancer – have had to fight, first for recognition and then for some kind of compensation for being innocent victims to a government’s reckless experimentation.
In 2025, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), was authorized to expand its coverage to Idahoans who lived in the state between Jan. 21, 1951 and Nov. 6, 1962 and who developed certain cancers.
RECA provides those who qualify (or their survivors) a one-time lump sum payment of $100,000. It became crucial to find definitive proof of such residencies.
That’s when Anne Marie Martin’s phone began to ring.
“We suddenly started getting a flood of requests for census information. And we were wondering why people were asking for this. We dug down deeper,” said Martin. “There’s a genuine document that the library can provide.”
Anne Marie Martin has worked for the Boise Public Library system for more than two decades. It’s nearly impossible to guess how many people she’s helped – scholars, students, researchers, readers (casual and otherwise), and just about anybody else. But these particular requests have been very personal.
“This has often brought some people in contact with family members that maybe they hadn’t talked to in a while,” she said. “Any kind of help that you can give future generations, maybe help them pay for college, things like that. It’s certainly better than nothing.”
Martin visited with Morning Edition host George Prentice to talk about this latest journey for a lifelong librarian, and her day-to-day proves that what she does is a whole lot “better than nothing.”
Find reporter George Prentice @georgepren
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